Salman Rushdie: âI believed there would be a happy ending.â Photograph: Benedict Evans/The Guardian Salman Rushdie: âI believed there would be a happy ending.â Photograph: Benedict Evans/The Guardian Sat 15 May 2021 07.00 EDT Poor Salman Rushdie. The one thing I am most keen to talk to him about is the one thing he absolutely, definitely does not want to discuss. âI really resist the idea of being dragged back to that period of time that you insist on bringing up,â he grumbles when I make the mistake of mentioning it twice in the first 15 minutes of our conversation. He is in his elegant, book-lined apartment, a cosy armchair just behind him, the corridor to the kitchen over his shoulder. Heâs in New York, which has been his home for the past 20 years, and we are talking â as is the way these days â on video. But even through the screen his frustration is palpable, and I donât blame him. Heâs one of the most famous literary authors alive, having won pretty much every book prize on the planet, including the best of the Booker for Midnightâs Children. Weâre meeting to talk about his latest book, Languages Of Truth, which is a collection of nonfiction from the last two decades, covering everything from Osama bin Laden to Linda Evangelista; from Cervantes to Covid. So why do I keep bringing up the fatwa?